Originally Posted by Cujo665

Exactly, the flow earned its worth when 50% of every new hire at AA came from Eagle/Envoy. A few of those year we even got 60%. People saw that and the word on the street for new pilots was if you weren't friends, family, astronaut, then Eaglevoy was your best way to keep AA as a possible career destination. You could still apply to Delta, United, Fedex, UPS like everybody else, but going to an AAG regional kept AA in play as a backup.

For the ones who never networked, never attended job fairs, never did anything to advance their own career, never did check airman or anything else then it became their primary plan to get to a legacy. The ones who proactively tried to get up and out saw many FO's leave for greener pastures before even upgrading at Eagle.

Lots of guys went to Spirit and Jetblue, and a few to Allegiant and Frontier. All of which are comparable career stops, and by getting in earlier rather than later, they upgraded to Captain sooner and avoided these furloughs.

Flow now is a mere shadow of what it once was. Getting to flow after 9-10 years isn't that great anymore. Network, attend job fairs, and get out at your first opportunity.

It really is amazing looking back at how lousy those regional companies treat their employees. Fighting to get real improvement just gets them to target you, it's not worth it. Focus your energy into getting out of the regionals at your earliest opportunity. Who's Delta, United, Fedex, UPS going to hire first; the regional guy or an LCC/ACMI guy with Airbus/Boeing or global experience? Do the math.

Keep flow as a backup, but don't stop trying to move up and out. The hiring will be picking back up sooner than the doom and gloom sayers claim. Envoy is a decent regional with good training producing a known product. You guys are in a good position.